Thursday, April 5, 2007

Public School Frustration

This will be where everyone tells me to home school. We thought about it and I even received catalogs to look at curriculum and ideologies when we were expecting Isaiah seven years ago. Matthew and I decided we would have been homeschooling out of fear and not necessarily to only enforce our beliefs. I'm sure that's a fine line anyways but I had definitely crossed onto the side of fear for safety.

That being said Matthew and I are frustrated with obvious things and some surprising things as well. The obvious being holidays like Christmas and Easter. Christmas consists of Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Santa. We are being patient and knowing that Isaiah learns the real Christmas at home and during AWANA and church services. Easter will most definitely consist of bunnies, candy and eggs, Jesus won't even get mentioned on the back page of the classifieds. Again, we can be patient as we know Isaiah knows, HE IS RISEN!

The surprising thing that frustrated us recently is what my little kindergartner told me this morning. This is also the main fear of safety problem I dealt with when we were waiting to meet Isaiah face-to-face and originally contemplated homeschooling. Isaiah said he took a dinosaur sticker off his binder and as a result a little boy, with whom he appears to be friendly with, said he was going to bring a knife to school and kill him. I had to sit down and say, WHAT!!! I asked if Isaiah told his teacher and he said he didn't know he was supposed to. Oh brother! I told Matthew and decided Isaiah will not ride the bus to school this morning and that I will call his teacher and won't bring Isaiah to school until I know what will happen regarding these threats. Matthew asked is there anyone left for him to socialize with at school that won't cause such problems? I answered him in one word, home-school. I'm assuming this is serious as Isaiah was reprimanded for playing with imaginary light-sabers at school during recess last fall.

I'm very excited that Resurrection Sunday is this Sunday, however, I still get homesick for the real thing. This temporary home sure is junky sometimes.

3 comments:

Carla said...

I so hear you!!! If it's not the constant teasing, it's the actual physical altercations that happen when there are only 2 recess monitors. I will be praying for you.

erin said...

I'll pray for you, too. And no, I wouldn't tell you to homeschool like you predicted. I don't know (yet) what it feels like to send your kids off into the world every day (no matter how small the world is for a 2nd grader), but I really think it's part of life. It's what your child comes home to that will shape him for the rest of his life. I know this from personal experience. Take heart! I went to public school and my fondest memories are of coming HOME to my mom who was waiting for me. I'll bet the kid with the "knife" doesn't have that. Your child can be a light to him already, without even knowing it, all because he's got a good home life.

Kim N. said...

I had never planned or wanted to homeschool until Megan was about 3/4 through with her kindergarten year. All the little things just added up to the decision. (she is now in 8th grade). Not every day is great, but this works for our family.